April Rose's video: April Rose in Earth Goddess Archive

These are excerpts from a VHS tape I digitized in 2012. My first bellydance teacher, Daleela, my mom, and I all dance together! Daleela Morad produced this show for public access television in Sacramento. We recorded it off our old TV set. I think this was filmed in 2000 or 2001 when I was about 13 and had been dancing about two years. The footage is special to me because it is of my first teacher and my mom but also because as I research bellydance in America for my MA thesis I am starting to appreciate all the different viewpoints on bellydance's history and significance. This video "Earth Goddess" supports the idea that bellydance is a celebration of the divine feminine principle. I do a solo to that Tarkan song "Kiss," that everyone danced to at that time, playing the virgin archetype. There is music from Artie Barsamian and George Abdo and Flames of Araby. I am simultaneously heart warmed, proud, and mortified when I watch this footage. It is a fun little piece of my history and of bellydance history in general. Proud of my roots.